Edit

Share via

Configure Microsoft Entra for Zero Trust: Monitor and detect cyberthreats

Having robust health monitoring and threat detection capabilities is one of the six pillars of the Secure Future Initiative. These guidelines are designed to help you set up a comprehensive logging system for archival and analysis. We include recommendations related to the triage of risky sign-ins, risky users, and authentication methods.

The first step to aligning with this pillar is to configure diagnostic settings for all Microsoft Entra logs so all changes made in your tenant are stored and accessible for analysis. Other recommendations in this pillar focus on the timely triage of risk alerts and Microsoft Entra recommendations. The key takeaway is to know what logs, reports, and health monitoring tools are available and to monitor them regularly.

Security guidance

Diagnostic settings are configured for all Microsoft Entra logs

The activity logs and reports in Microsoft Entra can help detect unauthorized access attempts or identify when tenant configuration changes. When logs are archived or integrated with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools, security teams can implement powerful monitoring and detection security controls, proactive threat hunting, and incident response processes. The logs and monitoring features can be used to assess tenant health and provide evidence for compliance and audits.

If logs aren't regularly archived or sent to a SIEM tool for querying, it's challenging to investigate sign-in issues. The absence of historical logs means that security teams might miss patterns of failed sign-in attempts, unusual activity, and other indicators of compromise. This lack of visibility can prevent the timely detection of breaches, allowing attackers to maintain undetected access for extended periods.

Remediation action

Privileged role activations have monitoring and alerting configured

Organizations without proper activation alerts for highly privileged roles lack visibility into when users access these critical permissions. Threat actors can exploit this monitoring gap to perform privilege escalation by activating highly privileged roles without detection, then establish persistence through admin account creation or security policy modifications. The absence of real-time alerts enables attackers to conduct lateral movement, modify audit configurations, and disable security controls without triggering immediate response procedures.

Remediation action

Privileged users sign in with phishing-resistant methods

Without phishing-resistant authentication methods, privileged users are more vulnerable to phishing attacks. These types of attacks trick users into revealing their credentials to grant unauthorized access to attackers. If non-phishing-resistant authentication methods are used, attackers might intercept credentials and tokens, through methods like adversary-in-the-middle attacks, undermining the security of the privileged account.

Once a privileged account or session is compromised due to weak authentication methods, attackers might manipulate the account to maintain long-term access, create other backdoors, or modify user permissions. Attackers can also use the compromised privileged account to escalate their access even further, potentially gaining control over more sensitive systems.

Remediation action

All high-risk users are triaged

Users considered at high risk by Microsoft Entra ID Protection have a high probability of compromise by threat actors. Threat actors can gain initial access via compromised valid accounts, where their suspicious activities continue despite triggering risk indicators. This oversight can enable persistence as threat actors perform activities that normally warrant investigation, such as unusual login patterns or suspicious inbox manipulation.

A lack of triage of these risky users allows for expanded reconnaissance activities and lateral movement, with anomalous behavior patterns continuing to generate uninvestigated alerts. Threat actors become emboldened as security teams show they aren't actively responding to risk indicators.

Remediation action

All high-risk sign-ins are triaged

Risky sign-ins flagged by Microsoft Entra ID Protection indicate a high probability of unauthorized access attempts. Threat actors use these sign-ins to gain an initial foothold. If these sign-ins remain uninvestigated, adversaries can establish persistence by repeatedly authenticating under the guise of legitimate users.

A lack of response lets attackers execute reconnaissance, attempt to escalate their access, and blend into normal patterns. When untriaged sign-ins continue to generate alerts and there's no intervention, security gaps widen, facilitating lateral movement and defense evasion, as adversaries recognize the absence of an active security response.

Remediation action

All user sign-in activity uses strong authentication methods

Attackers might gain access if multifactor authentication (MFA) isn't universally enforced or if there are exceptions in place. Attackers might gain access by exploiting vulnerabilities of weaker MFA methods like SMS and phone calls through social engineering techniques. These techniques might include SIM swapping or phishing, to intercept authentication codes.

Attackers might use these accounts as entry points into the tenant. By using intercepted user sessions, attackers can disguise their activities as legitimate user actions, evade detection, and continue their attack without raising suspicion. From there, they might attempt to manipulate MFA settings to establish persistence, plan, and execute further attacks based on the privileges of compromised accounts.

Remediation action

High priority Microsoft Entra recommendations are addressed

Leaving high-priority Microsoft Entra recommendations unaddressed can create a gap in an organization’s security posture, offering threat actors opportunities to exploit known weaknesses. Not acting on these items might result in an increased attack surface area, suboptimal operations, or poor user experience.

Remediation action

ID Protection notifications enabled

If you don't enable ID Protection notifications, your organization loses critical real-time alerts when threat actors compromise user accounts or conduct reconnaissance activities. When Microsoft Entra ID Protection detects accounts at risk, it sends email alerts with Users at risk detected as the subject and links to the Users flagged for risk report. Without these notifications, security teams remain unaware of active threats, allowing threat actors to maintain persistence in compromised accounts without being detected. You can feed these risks into tools like Conditional Access to make access decisions or send them to a security information and event management (SIEM) tool for investigation and correlation. Threat actors can use this detection gap to conduct lateral movement activities, privilege escalation attempts, or data exfiltration operations while administrators remain unaware of the ongoing compromise. The delayed response enables threat actors to establish more persistence mechanisms, change user permissions, or access sensitive resources before you can fix the issue. Without proactive notification of risk detections, organizations must rely solely on manual monitoring of risk reports, which significantly increases the time it takes to detect and respond to identity-based attacks.

Remediation action

No legacy authentication sign-in activity

Legacy authentication protocols such as basic authentication for SMTP and IMAP don't support modern security features like multifactor authentication (MFA), which is crucial for protecting against unauthorized access. This lack of protection makes accounts using these protocols vulnerable to password-based attacks, and provides attackers with a means to gain initial access using stolen or guessed credentials.

When an attacker successfully gains unauthorized access to credentials, they can use them to access linked services, using the weak authentication method as an entry point. Attackers who gain access through legacy authentication might make changes to Microsoft Exchange, such as configuring mail forwarding rules or changing other settings, allowing them to maintain continued access to sensitive communications.

Legacy authentication also provides attackers with a consistent method to reenter a system using compromised credentials without triggering security alerts or requiring reauthentication.

From there, attackers can use legacy protocols to access other systems that are accessible via the compromised account, facilitating lateral movement. Attackers using legacy protocols can blend in with legitimate user activities, making it difficult for security teams to distinguish between normal usage and malicious behavior.

Remediation action

All Microsoft Entra recommendations are addressed

Microsoft Entra recommendations give organizations opportunities to implement best practices and optimize their security posture. Not acting on these items might result in an increased attack surface area, suboptimal operations, or poor user experience.

Remediation action